Bringing a traffic box to colorful life makes a corner of Ashland ‘a little better,’ says artist Sidney Reha
By Peter Finkle
“I love the feeling that I am making an impact on my environment, that I added something to this place that made it a little better.” — Sidney Reha, artist
This article features the third brightly painted traffic signal box along Siskiyou Boulevard, beautified by a just-graduated SOU art student during November 2024. You will learn about the artist, her artwork and what she learned in the process of painting.
The work, by artist Sidney Reha, is titled “Hands and Faces.”
Always an artist?
I asked Reha: “When did you first think of yourself as an artist?” She paused and remembered a specific moment at age 13 when she first thought she might be “good enough” to consider herself an artist. During a four-day Thanksgiving vacation deep dive into creativity, she designed and illustrated an entire 60-card deck of Oracle Cards (“similar to Tarot cards,” she said) with mystical, nature and transcendental themes. During that vacation, she reset her internal self-image from being “a kid who draws” to being “a kid who enjoys illustrating and creating finished things.”
Then we laughed as she painted this word picture from her preschool years, a time when she was already drawing. “My mom once told me that when I was really little, I would say things like I was going to be ‘a veterinarian or a marine biologist.’ But the preschool teacher told my mom, ‘That kid’s going to be an artist.’ I guess it was apparent to everybody but me for a long time.”
Since those early years, she has learned that being an artist is an integral part of her identity. Growing up, she didn’t have access to very many art materials, so she did a lot with a little. She blossomed as an artist in the Southern Oregon University art program, with so many new opportunities and helpful teachers. Sidney graduated from SOU in 2024 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Now she is into the working world, newly learning how to balance passion for art with hours at paying jobs.
Haines & Friends Visual Arts grant
She was thrilled to recently receive one of the Haines & Friends Visual Arts fund grants for 2024-25. She described being “so thankful and amazed to receive funds to explore new art forms, such as oil painting, which has never been an option for me … as well as accessible art like zines and prints. The grant will give me such a boost in my ability to fulfill these dreams.”
A long process
“Because I was working on something out in the open, it was an invitation to discuss things. I had conversations about art and life with a lot of those people, really fulfilling and incredible.” — Sidney Reha
In October and November 2023, artists submitted designs for the first three Ashland traffic signal boxes to be painted. Reha reminded me that an entire year elapsed between her design submission and when she painted the box. During that year, she grew and changed, both as an artist and as a person.
Actual painting began in early November 2024, soon after Sidney returned from a six-week trip to Europe — her first time outside the West Coast! As a result, she approached this project with excitement and a fresh attitude, as if she were doing art for the first time.
Weather challenges
Reha began sketching the design onto the box Nov. 10, which was a cool, cloudy Sunday with a high temperature of 59. The first day turned out to be the warmest of her painting days. By Dec. 1, the final day of painting, the high temperature was only 39! Autumn rains during nine days in November added to the challenge.
Personal challenges and fulfillment
I spoke with Reha several times as she was painting. In response to my questions, she reflected on how this project impacted her view of herself as a normally solitary and self-contained artist and personality. She pointed out that she was painting at a very busy intersection, with a constant stream of students, staff and community members walking by.
She expressed her encounters with passersby, including houseless folks who stopped to talk or paint with her, as especially meaningful.
“Because I was working on something out in the open, it was an invitation to discuss things. It felt like being a community builder. I had conversations about art and life with a lot of those people, really fulfilling and incredible.
“There was one guy who came and painted with me a couple days. He brought me a bunch of paintbrushes, and talked to me about how he was heading to West Virginia to volunteer with the cleanup effort there after the floods. One last day we worked together, and then he was gone. It was such a nice but fleeting connection.”
She also described learning a lot by working for the Public Arts Advisory Committee and the city of Ashland as a client, which was very different from creating personal artwork in the studio. This was her first step into the world of public art, and she hopes to have other opportunities in the future.
She said, “It was incredibly fun and rewarding … more of a collaborative aspect than making a personal painting. Also, the feeling that I am making an impact on my environment, that I added something to this place that made it a little better.”
Community participation
About seven people helped Reha to create the artwork. The cold weather discouraged some planned collaborators from coming out. Her most faithful painting assistants were three SOU art student friends, especially Brenna Culbert.
Local business support
Thank you to Central Art Supply. Reha purchased paints and supplies at Central Art Supply in Medford, which generously offered a significant discount to the Public Arts Committee for this project.
Other art by Reha
On the Southern Oregon University website, I discovered a mural in the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion that was credited to Reha, so I asked her about it. She described it as her first large-scale art project, thanks to SOU art professor Kyle Larson. Each of the 11 students in his winter 2023 class submitted designs for the large wall mural. Sidney’s was chosen and she became “the art director” for the collaborative class painting project.
Why public art?
Public art is “art for everyone,” not just for people who visit museums and galleries. In the midst of our daily lives, public art has the potential to uplift us, to challenge us, to make us think or to bring a smile. As of early 2025, we have 62 public artworks in the city’s collection, with additional public art projects underway.
Ashland has a Public Arts Advisory Committee to sponsor and advocate for public artworks. Sixteen more traffic signal boxes will be painted during the next few years. These are all part of an ambitious Neighborhood Public Artworks project, during which the committee hopes that hundreds of Ashland residents will assist the artists in painting traffic signal box murals.
Ultimately, the success of this Neighborhood Public Artworks project will be measured by how many people are inspired, by participating in the creative process, to more deeply appreciate the wide variety of public art that surrounds here in Ashland.
Stay tuned for more traffic signal boxes to be painted in 2025 and beyond!
You can also read Ashland.news articles about the painted traffic signal box (Box 1) at Siskiyou Boulevard and Beach Street (click here), across from Ashland High School, and Box 2, at Siskiyou and Walker Avenue (click here) near the Presbyterian Church.
Peter Finkle leads Ashland walking tours. Visit WalkAshland.com to learn about his history, art and Haunted Ashland tours, or to request a private tour for your group or family.